This is just a crazy good roasted chicken recipe:  Roasted Chicken with Bacon and Sweet Paprika

Roasted Chicken with Bacon
I roasted this chicken for my family on the night before Valentine’s Day, our Friday night dinner.  It really couldn’t have been any easier to make. The chicken is brushed with olive oil, and then it’s rubbed with a simple mixture of orange zest, paprika, salt and pepper. After it has roasted in the oven for about 45 minutes, you sneak it out of the oven to wrap it in bacon, then it’s back into the oven until the bacon is crispy and the chicken is cooked through (another 20 minutes).

50 Shades of Chicken

This recipe comes from a book by “FL Fowler (not her real name): Fifty Shades of Chicken.  This book is a New York Times Bestseller, and it has 336 5-star reviews on Amazon.  It’s a parody, of course, of the much-talked-about movie that debuted this weekend.  I don’t have an interest in seeing the movie, but I’ve been pretty impressed with this book that landed on my doorstep last week.  A few things to mention:  it’s a bit steamy.  It’s not the sort of cookbook you want your kids picking up and reading.  But it’s cleverly written steamy kitchen-style, and there are a lot of opportunities for laughing out loud.  With recipes like Extra Virgin Breasts (Roasted Bone-In Breast with Olive Oil, Lemon and Rosemary, Steamy White Meat (White Wine-Steamed Chicken Breasts with Sesame Oil and Scallions), Come Hither Chicken (Roasted Chicken with Truffle Butter), and 47 more recipes I’m embarrassed to write down… this is a book to share with your partner or good friends who “get it.”  If you are easily offended by steamy romance novels, you’ll want to skip this one.  That being said, the chicken recipes in this book are really great recipes you’ll want to try.  I’ll give you the non-steamy names of a few I’m drooling over:  Cranberry-Baked Chicken with Apple Cider, Crispy Chicken Tenders with Cashews and Coconut Curry, Crispy Baked Chicken with Honey Mustard and Lime.  They’re not your typical, ho-hum chicken recipes.  And that’s a good reason to have this one on your cookbook shelf (but maybe in the back… hidden from your children!)

Roasted Chicken with Bacon Recipe

Roasted chicken is such an easy dinner to make.  I do pick up the already-roasted chickens every once in a while from the market, but I’m always disappointed.  They’re so much better when you make them yourself!

The result of this recipe:  WOW.  My husband and my son both said it was the best roasted chicken I’ve ever put on the dinner table. The chicken turns out super tender, and the flavor of both the orange zest and bacon come through nicely.  We enjoyed the crispy pieces of bacon to scoop up with bites of chicken.  I’ll definitely be trying more recipes from this book as we do like to eat chicken quite often for dinner.

Roasted Chicken with Bacon and Sweet Paprika
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Roasted Chicken with Bacon and Sweet Paprika

One of the best roasted chicken recipes I've ever tried!
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 1 hour 5 minutes
Resting Time: 10 minutes
Total: 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
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Ingredients

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Set a rack over a roasting pan (I used a rack placed on a foil-lined baking sheet).
  • Finely grate the zest of the orange into a small bowl. Add the paprika, salt and pepper, and mix to combine.
  • Massage the oil all over the skin of the chicken. Sprinkle some of the paprika mixture inside the bird. Rub the rest over the outside of the bird. Cut the orange into quarters and place them into the cavity of the bird.
  • Move the chicken to the rack. Roast for 45 minutes, basting with pan juices occasionally (if they accumulate). Remove the chicken from the oven and criss-cross the bacon over the top of the breasts. Continue to roast until the chicken is cooked through and the bacon is crisp, about 20 minutes longer. Let rest 10 minutes before carving.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 558kcal, Carbohydrates: 5g, Protein: 40g, Fat: 41g, Saturated Fat: 12g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g, Monounsaturated Fat: 18g, Trans Fat: 0.2g, Cholesterol: 162mg, Sodium: 1194mg, Potassium: 522mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 1216IU, Vitamin C: 20mg, Calcium: 42mg, Iron: 2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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11 Comments

  1. Mike says:

    This recipe was an absolute triumph! I had a much larger chicken, so I ended up using zest of a lemon as well as the orange, and shoving both inside (quite a tight fit!) as well as adding some juice to the glaze, before roasting for 1h50m. The bacon didn’t blacken much but it was pretty crisp and a nice accompaniment, but the chicken itself was *so* moist and juicy, and the fruit flavours really permeate through the meat.

    I also find cramming some butter underneath the chicken breast skin, prior to basting, really helps lock in moisture and succulence.

  2. Eileen says:

    I understand what you are saying; thanks for hearing me out.

  3. Joodie says:

    The bacon was nowhere near the crispness shown in the photo AT ALL after 20 mins.

    1. Lori Lange says:

      I’m sure it will vary by thickness of bacon. For this recipe, I used a very cheap, store brand version of bacon… which was very thin. It was definitely done at or before 20 minutes for me. Using a thicker bacon will take longer.

  4. Eileen says:

     I think this recipe looks delicious but I will not be making it on principle.  Really, WHY are we glorifying Fifty Shades of Grey to the point that we are now referring to sadism and bondage IN A CHICKEN RECIPE?????  Why, women, do we think this unhealthy, sick relationship that’s depicted in this movie is a GOOD thing?  Would you want your daughters or granddaughters to be treated in this way by any man?
    Would you want your sons or grandsons to treat women this way?

    Please, keep your 50 Shades of Chicken and your pictures of bound up, whipped and chained poultry.  I myself will be teaching my daughters self respect, and my sons to respect women.

    1. Lori Lange says:

      While I’m not a fan of the movie or book, the author that created this cookbook wrote it with a silly, tongue-in-cheek, mocking tone. The chicken recipes are very good, and I’m here to share recipes. I’m sorry if you were offended by the share.

  5. Sara @ sizzling-flavors says:

    Looks amazing!!

  6. Elizabeth says:

    I just bought a whole chicken this morning….I’m definitely trying this recipe with it!  Thanks.

  7. Kevin @ Closet Cooking says:

    Love the bacon on that roast chicken!

  8. Tom @ Raise Your Garden says:

    I no longer need to pick up a rotisserie from Wegmans. I’ve never seen an entire chicken wrapped in bacon, looks delicious.

  9. marcie says:

    I make roasted chicken all the time, and I would never have thought to wrap it in bacon! That’s brilliant, and that cookbook sounds great. I have heard of it and love the catchy title. haha